Report on Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogens Has Some Good News and Some Bad News

The latest federal report on antibiotic resistance in enteric bacteria shows that, while there has been some progress in reducing the resistance of some pathogens, other are showing greater resistance. The data come from the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), a surveillance system run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture that has tracked antibiotic resistance in humans, retail meats and food animals since 1996. Each year, antibiotic-resistant infections from foodborne germs cause an estimated 430,000 illnesses in the United States. Multidrug-resistant Salmonella, from food and other sources, causes about 100,000 illnesses in the U.S. each year. The new report from CDC NARMS compares resistance levels in human samples in 2012 to a baseline period of 2003-2007. Multidrug-resistant Salmonella decreased during the past 10 years, and resistance to two cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones remained low in 2012. About one in five Salmonella Heidelberg infections was resistant to a cephalapsorin drug called ceftriaxone. Although fluoroquinolone resistance remained low in 2012, Salmonella enteritidis accounted for 50 percent of infections resistant to the fluoroquinolone drug nalidixic acid, which is used in laboratory testing for resistance. Campylobacter resistance to ciprofloxacin remained at 25 percent, despite FDA’s 2005 withdrawal of its approval for the use of enrofloxacin in poultry. Both drugs are in the fluoroquinolone class of drugs. Shigella resistance to ciprofloxacin and azithromycin is growing, but no Shigella strains were resistant to both drugs. In Salmonella typhi, resistance to quinolone drugs increased to 68 percent in 2012, raising concerns that one of the common treatments for typhoid fever may not work in many cases. “Infections with antibiotic-resistant germs are often more severe,” said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. “These data will help doctors prescribe treatments that work and to help CDC and our public health partners identify and stop outbreaks caused by resistant germs faster and protect people’s health.”